For bp nichol
September 25, 1944 - September 30, 1988
Shaking his mane,
holding his pain, he
roars with yellow
toothed laughter so
large it
spills over
into song; birds
catch
the drift and
carry on all measure
beyond any known
syntax into currents
contemporary all
ways, our
Rumi, born in
all
their holy,
poetic fecundity.
*
A loss as alive now as
then. He was
about to read in my poetry series
at Flesherton Library just after
his operation that September.
He called me to postpone, but
I’m glad I told him then we
all loved him.
Because we do. Because
born in 1944 and died five
days
before his forty-fourth birthday
in a year we thought would be lucky,
we do.
for Jack Spicer
“we are too tired to live like lions”
Read words thickly
and lie
with the lion
on the lam
of a dilettante’s
dilemma. Or
read Rimbaud instead and lie
with the lion on the lam to lie on it,
no
lie! — loose
occupational hazard—
pelt, spelt
and all played out.
The rest is
easy
even
—especially—
without
pride
(unless we
rest
lying in
wait all
winter long)
to prey.
Joe for Joe, Encore
Joe Blades, reaped too
soon, after long labour in
the field, the widest field
cross the Can Lit continent.
His voice on the radio, no
Broken Jaw. His distress,
the usual Canadian complaint.
“Nobody knows the work.”
But we do, Joe. We’re still
listening.
And Muttsy, y’old renegade,
muttering Rosenblatt, Rose
Leaf from Qualicum Beach,
his wild menagerie no more.
Voices echo voices still heard
on the sharp blade wind whets
as their names imply.
Joseph means to add, increase—
just how you both gave to us,
to the word hoard, the common
poetry store. Yet what I recall
most tenderly is your kind selves—
deprecating, wry and aware,
alert to the next moment
garnered in grins that, here,
grin once more.
Poet/playwright Penn Kemp was London's inaugural Poet Laureate (2010-13) and Western University’s Writer-in-Residence (2009-10). Chosen as a foremother of Canadian poetry and Spoken Word Artist (2015) by the League of Canadian Poets, Kemp has long been a keen participant/activist in Canada’s cultural life, with thirty books of poetry, prose and drama; seven plays and ten CDs produced as well as award-winning videopoems and multimedia galore, Penn’s new collection, INCREMENTALLY, is up as e-book and album on https://www.hempressbooks.com/authors/penn-kemp. Join her on https://www.instagram.com/pennkemp, https://pennkemp.substack.com/, https://x.com/pennkemp and facebook.com/pennkemppoet. See www.pennkemp.wordpress.com. She's delighted rob is publishing these poems in the forthcoming chapbook, Lives of the Poets, above/ground press.
Her next readings
are in Toronto: details on www.pennkemp.weebly.com.
October 10, 2024.
3:30-4:30, “New Sonic Poetries,” OCADU
Waterfront Campus, 130 Queen’s Quay E, Level 4R
October 2O, 2024,
3-5pm. "Art of Improv", with Bill Gilliam. The Kensington Sound
Studio , 170 Baldwin St.
October 21, 2024,
7pm. Art Bar Reading Series, Free Times Café, 320 College Street.
